‘Tremendous achievement’: Ballina Breakers under-18 girls finalists at NSW Junior State Cup basketball competition

With only a small number of players to pick from, a Ballina basketball club sent its motley crew out of the frying pan into the fire at the NSW State Cup. Here‘s their story.

The Ballina Breakers under-18 girls team. Front (left to right): Coco Gallager, Nina Aboitiz, Madeleine Alexander, Madison Smith. Centre: Sasha Oxland, Neeve Alexander, Sally Crethar, Leura Allen, Lily Beadham, Pippa Bailey, Marty Smith (coach). Back: Simon Bailey (assistant coach).

North Coast basketballers have fought against the odds to end their season on a high as one of the only country teams to make it into a NSW Junior State Cup grand final this year.

Ballina Breakers team manager Megan Alexander said it was “not bad for a team whose association doesn’t even have a local girls comp at the moment”.

“The odds were well and truly stacked against them this year,” she said.

The Breakers under-18 girls were the only country squad from more than 60 teams across the state in four age groups (under-12, under-14, under-16 and under-18 girls/boys) to make it into a NSW Junior State Cup Grand Final this year.

The Ballina Breakers team huddles with coach Martin Smith.

With only ten players to pick from, the club put the girls together and entered them into the Northern Junior League competition.

The team was crowned 2023 North Eastern Junior League (NEJL) under-18 girls champions at Port Macquarie and qualified for the State Cup in Gosford earlier this month.

Coach Martin Smith said Ballina does not have a competition and holds trials to pick players.

“We basically only have the ten players in Ballina that actually play in that age comp,” he said.

Fresh from wins over neighbouring Byron Beez and Lismore Storm in the NEJL, Ballina took no prisoners in an impressive campaign edging out North Sydney Bears 71 – 59, Leeton Eagles 105 – 54, and Manly Warringah Sea Eagles 84 – 62. The Breakers were undefeated in their pool.

“Throughout the State Cup, they fought with uncompromising spirit and determination, playing some amazing basketball, ” Ms Alexander said.

Mr Smith said: “We beat Manly and North Sydney, but unfortunately we lost to Hills District (Hornets).”

He said the final was a “very high intense” game.

“I think our girls were the better team, athletically,” Mr Smith said.

“Hills District came away with such a great shooting performance – they hit 12 or 13 three-pointers.”

The Ballina Breakers team with Coach Martin Smith.

Breakers Sasha Oxland was a standout player in the Cup, shooting 14 hoops and seven free throws against Sea Eagles.

Mr Smith also pointed to Pippa Bailey for her stellar performance.

The Breakers girls were “on top of the world” and came away satisfied, despite the loss to the Hornets.

“They knew they gave it a good shot – they put every effort in and left everything on the floor, totally exhausted,” Mr Smith said.

Assistant Coach Simon Bailey said reaching a state final was a “rare occurrence” for a small basketball association.

“What an exceptional group of girls they are, especially for a team that did not have a massive pool of players to select from,” he said.

“One Central Coast coach nearly fell over backwards when he realised we didn’t have the huge number of players at rep team selections like many of the big associations have, and that most of our team were the younger end of the age group.”

Mr Smith said: “It’s a tremendous achievement to overcome the odds to play against all those big Sydney teams and beat them.”

The Breakers will regroup in hopes of snatching a finals win.